Fruit peeling knife assembly

ABSTRACT

A knife peeler assembly for peeling fruit fixed upon a vertical spindle wherein, a rotary knife is mounted in a yoke, a frame, which is pivoted to move along an arcuate path and carry the knife over the surface of the fruit from top to bottom, while the fruit is rotated about its vertical axis. The knife frame carries a motor that drives a knife stub shaft journaled in the frame. An extended knife shaft, carrying the knife is connected to the stub shaft by a universal joint, and the knife is suspended from the frame by a link closely adjacent the knife, with the knife being urged toward peeling position by a light spring. Means are provided to control depth of peeling and to retract the knife at the bottom of its stroke to prevent contact with the fruit spindle.

United States Patent Polk, Jr.

[ 1 Aug. 1, 1972 [54] FRUIT FEELING KNIFE ASSEMBLY [72] Inventor: Ralph Polk, Jr., P.O. Box 3208, Tampa, Fla. 33601 [22] Filed: Feb. 9, 1971 {21] Appl. No.: 113,817

[52] US. Cl. ..l46/3 M, 146/43 R [51] Int. Cl. ..A23n 7/00 [58] Field of Search ..l46/43 R, 3 M

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,089,502 8/1937 Polk ..146/43 R X 2,182,688 12/ i939 Buchhagen ..146/43 R Primary Examiner-Willie G. Abercrombie Attorney-Mason, Fenwick & Lawrence [57] ABSTRACT A knife peeler assembly for peeling fruit fixed upon a vertical spindle wherein, a rotary knife is mounted in a yoke, a frame, which is pivoted to move along an arcuate path and carry the knife over the surface of the fruit from top to bottom, while the fruit is rotated about its vertical axis. The knife frame carries a motor that drives a knife stub shaft journaled in the frame. An extended knife shaft, carrying the knife is connected to the stub shaft by a universal joint, and the knife is suspended from the frame by a link closely adjacent the knife, with the knife being urged toward peeling position by a light spring. Means are provided to control depth of peeling and to retract the knife at the bottom of its stroke to prevent contact with the fruit spindle;

10 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDAus H972 3.680.614

' sum 1 org INVENTOR RALPH POL-K1312" ATTORNEYS PATENTEnAus 1 I972 SHEET 2 UP 2 INVENTOR BY I swig ATT RNEYs FRUIT FEELING KNIFE ASSEMBLY STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to apparatus forpeeling fruit,

cally of the spindle, while-having the. knife freeto follow the. fruit surface.-

It, is also an object to provide-a. peeler'of this kind having means. to prevent the knife from striking. the

and particularly to peeling apparatus which is auto 5 fruit-carrying spindle attheend P g y matic in operation and can be used to peel deciduous fruit or peel the membrane from citrus fruit'afier the albedo has been removed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Mechanized knife peeling-of fruit has been practiced for a number of years, but prior efforts have not been wholly satisfactory. This has resulted from the nature of the product being peeled, and from the structure employed to do the peeling.

While each kind of fruit has its own distinctive shape, one pear will differ from another in size, shape and general contour, and one orange will differ from another in the samemanner. Because of this, each individual fruit has a surface contour which differs, at least slightly, from other fruit of the same variety. Consequently, any mechanized peeling equipment must either cut the fruit to a predetermined size and shape, or have its cutting elementmounted to follow the surface contour of each individual fruit to be peeled. As the first mentioned method is wasteful, the secondis generally followed.

In order to follow the contour of the fruit, it is necessary for the peeling knife to have free movement andbe guided by the fruit itself. This has been done in many instances by providing a floating mount for the-knife,

and having a guard adjacent the knife, and movable with it, to ride upon the fruit surface so that the knife will remove a predetermined thickness of peel. In theory, this arrangement is ideal, but in practice, with apparatus previously used, peeling has been far from uniform.

In a number of prior peelers, the peelingknife has been mounted upon a shaft of considerable length, mounted in a long tube which carries a bearing for the shaft. This assembly has considerable weight, which causes the knife to bounce and leave an uneven surface on the peeled fruit. Even if a short shaft is. used, the shaft is mounted at the end of a floating arm antiv the same weight problem is present. When pronounced bouncing occurs, the fruit is alternately gougedand improperly peeled. The more uneven the surface of the fruit, the more the knife will bounce.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The general object of the present invention is to provide fruit peeling apparatus which will maintain the knife, or peeling tool, in contact with the knife surface so that uniform peeling will be accomplished.

A more specific object is to provide peeling apparatus which will include a frame to provide a general path of travel of the knife about the fruit, with an extremely light weight floating knife assembly carried by the frame.

Another object is to provide a peeler of this nature having means carried by the frame to constantly urge the knife toward the surface of the fruit.

A further object is the provision of fruit peeling apparatus which will operate to peel fruit on a rotating spindle by moving the peeling means in an arc verti- Still. another object of the invention is to provide peelingapparatuswhich is .adaptable to peel fruit of different variety and different" contour withoutchange-in principle or'design.

Other objects of the invention. will become apparent from-thefollowing description of:one. practical embodimentthereof, when taken in conjunction with the drawings which accompany, and form part of, this specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION-OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1' is a. perspective view of the. peeling knife assembly of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section through the assembly, taken onthe line 22.ofFIG. 1', and showing'the peelingtknife at its inoperative position above fruit mounted on a spindle forpeeling;

FIG'. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2", but with the knife at the mid point of its peeling cycle; and,

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIGS. land 3, butshowing the knife atthev end of its. peelingcycle.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT While'the fruit peeling assembly ofthe present invention may be part of'a machine for performing. other operations upon fruit in'addition to knife. peeling, the knife! assembly isshownand will be described apart from other mechanism, except-for a spindle to support fruit while beingpeeled, in order. to simplify the disclosure.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the-knife assembly l is shown mounted upon a frame 2'. which also supports a spindle 3. For'purposes of the present disclosure, it is only necessary. to state that thespindle is mounted upon a vertical shaft 4, rotatably supported in the frame and is rotatedrby suitable means, which is not shown. The spindle consists of abasemember 5, fixed to shaft 4', whichcarries a plurality of vertically extending, parallel, fruit-impalling pins 6. Fruit'is placed upon the spindle with its core, or polaraxis, vertical and parallel to the impaling pins, and centered with respect to the-pins; A pear 7 is shown in position on the spindle in all of the Figures.

The knife assembly is mounted upon a support leg 8, whichis pivotally attached to the frame, as at 9. The projected axis of the pivot 9 intersects the rotational axis of the spindle 3, if fruit of generally spherical shape,.such as an orange or grapefruit, is to be peeled. If the fruit is elongated, such as a pear, the pivot axis may be spaced from the spindle axis in a direction away from the peeling position of the knife, to provide a flatter traverse arc of travel for the knife. As the assembly is shown for peeling pears, the pivot 9 is offset from the spindle axis. The knife travel path will be described later.

Near the opposite end of support leg 8 from the pivot 9, a rod 10 is fixed to the leg, at a right angleto theleg, andextends across the peeling position. The far end of rod 10 carries a short lever 11. Rod 10 is fixed with respect to support leg 8, and lever l l is fixed to the rod, so that leg 8, rod and lever 11 move as a unit about the pivot 9. Lever 11 has a short drive shaft 12 journaled near its end, and the shaft carries a pulley 1 3. A motor 14, having a drive pulley 15, is secured to rod 10, and a belt 16, over pulleys l3 and l5,rotates shaft 12 when motor 14 is operating.

A knife 17, of conventional disk type having a disk 18 and an annular, serrated cutting blade 19, is attached to one end of a drive shaft 20, of small diameter and of light weight material. Shaft 20 has its opposite end connected to stub drive shaft 12 by means of a universal joint 21. This provides a floating mount for the knife.

Rod 10 carries an additional arm 22, adjacent the plane of the knife, which may be termed a knife sup port and control arm, for it suspends the knife and mounts the means for controlling the position of the knife relative to the surface of the fruit. A knifesuspending link 23 is pivoted at one end to arm 22,'as at 24, and its opposite end passes through a bearing block 25 on shaft 20. Collars 26 on link 23 on opposite sides of block 25 fix the link length and determine the swinging arc of knife 17 about pivot 24. A tube 27 on shaft 20 between the knife and bearing block 25 fixes the position of the block relative'to the knife. Knife 11 is urged toward spindle 3 by means of a light spring 28, which has one end fastened to arm 22 and the other end bent to lie behind, and in contact with, link 23 near its point of connection to block 25. This causes the knife to be pressed gently, but firmly, against the surface of the fruit being peeled, as will be described.

Knife 17 is retracted by'and has its forward movementunder the influence of spring 28 limited by a control lever 29, which is also carried by arm 22 by a pivot 30. The free end of lever 29 has a stop pin3l projecting from its side across the path of forward movement of the knife link 23 to provide a limit of forward movement for the knife, and to act as a knife retracting member under certain circumstances. Lever 29, in turn, is urged toward the spindle by means of a spring 32, attached at one end to the pivot 30 and having its other end in contact with the back edge of lever 29. A bracket 33, mounted on the arm 22, carries a top lip 34 at its outer end that projects across the path of swing of lever 29 to limit the movement of that lever in a forward direction. Thus, knife 17 is free to move rearwardly against the pressure of spring 28, but is urged forwardly toward, or into contact with, stop pin 33 by that spring. Lever 29 is free to move backwardly against the force of spring 32, but it is urged toward its limit stop lip 34 by spring 32. If lever 29 is moved backwardly a sufficient distance to cause pin 33 to conried by the lever 29. As the knife-supporting frame swings about the pivot 9 on the downward arc of its cy- -cle, the lower :end of operator 37 will strike the camming member 36 and be deflected by'it. This will cause link23 to swingbackwardly and draw the knife with it. The shapes of the camming member and the operator are such that the knife will beheld away from the spindle regardless of the extent of downward movement of the assembly.

The assembly must have an arcuate movement'of sufficient extent to carry the knife from a position above the top of fruit impaled upon the spindle .to a position adjacent the fruit bottom to assure complete peeling. This can be accomplished in many ways, but for simplified disclosure, the support leg 8 is shown as having an actuating arm 38 projecting beyond the pivot 9. A link 39 is connected to the arm and has its other end connected to a c'am'follower, crank, or other conventional means (not shown) to raise and lower the link and rock the knife asembly the required distance. I

In use, a fruit, as shown the pear7, will be impaled upon spindle 3 with its coreaxis vertical :and centered with respect to the spindle. Whether the spindle has a fixed position, as shown, and the fruit loaded in that position, or the spindle has a loading position remote from the peeling position and is moved into peeling position with the fruit in place is immaterial to .the present invention. When the fruit is in place at the peeling position, the spindle is rotated. This will rotate the fruit about its core axis. This assembly is in the position shownin FlG.2atthistime. i

' When the fruit is in place on the spindle and the spindle is rotating, the knife assembly will be moved about its support pivot 9 to cause the knife blade edge. to traverse an arc which will at all points be at least at peeling depth beneath the fruit, surface. For best results, the arc should permit deeper penetration than this, and the knife will be moved back from its stop pin 33, so that it is in light pressure contact with the fruit through the bias of spring 28. To ensure knife penetration of the fruit only to a predetermined depth, a guard 40 is mounted on bearing block 25 and has a free end 41 extending toward the knife for riding on the fruit surface. The knife cutting edge projects toward the spindle just the desired distance beyond, the guard free end 41 to make a cut of desired depth.

The knife drive motor 14 will be started, and the knife will be rotating as the knife assembly begins its downward arc of movement. When the guard 40 contacts the fruit, the knife suspension link 23 will be moved back slightly from stop pin 31, so that the knife will have floating contact with the fruit while being yieldingly held against the fruit by spring 28. By reason of this arrangement, the guard will slide over the rotating fruit surface, moving in or out as the contour changes, but remaining in light contact with the surface. The peeling position is shown in FIG. 3. if a major change in fruit contour is encountered, the rearward pressure of the suspension link 23 against spring 28 may cause lever 29 to move backward also. If this occurs, both members will return to their former locations under the influence of their respective springs as soon as the condition is relieved. Due to the fact that the support point for the guard and knife is closely adjacent the knife, and the point of spring application is also close to the knife, there will be little tendency for the knife to bounce when it strikes a rough spot on the fruit. The closeness of the suspension point and spring pressure point to the knife, coupled with the light weight mounting shaft, results in an extremely stable knife movement. Consequently, the peeled fruit will be smooth and free from the gouged spots normally caused by knife bounce.

The knifewill begin peeling as soon as its rotating cutting edge contacts the rotating fruit. The downward swing of the knife assembly will gradually cause the knife to traverse the fruit surface, following a spiral path from the top to a level adjacent the bottom. As the knife approaches the bottom of the fruit, operator 37 will strike cam member 36 and cause lever 29 to retract and bring stop pin 31 into contact with the knife suspension link 23. Further movement will draw back the knife and prevent contact with the spindle 3. This position is shown in FIG. 4.

After the assembly has reached the bottom of its downward movement, it reverses and moves back to its starting point, carrying the knife over the top of the fruit. The fruit is then replaced, and the cycle is repeated. Normally, a thin slice will be removed from the top of the fruit prior to beginning the knife peeling, and a small segment of the bottom will remain unpeeled after the knife operation, but this segment is cut off after the fruit has been removed from the impaling pins of the spindle.

While in the above one embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it will be understood that the particular details of construction shown and described are merely by way of illustration, and the invention may take other forms within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Knife assembly for peeling fruit mounted upon a rotatable spindle comprising, a frame, a knife mounted for rotation about an axis normal to the rotary axis of the spindle, a shaft upon which the knife is mounted, the shaft being carried by the frame and having a flexible joint between the frame and knife, a suspension link pivoted to the frame and connected to the shaft adjacent the knife to support the knife for arcuate movement relative to the frame in a plane radial to the spindle rotary axis, resilient means carried by frame and contacting the suspension link to yieldingly urge the knife toward fruit on the spindle, means to drive the shaft, and means pivotally mounting the frame for movement about an axis normal to the rotary axis of the spindle to move the knife in an arc longitudinally of the spindle to traverse fruit mounted upon the spindle.

2. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein,

there is a guard mounted on the shaft adjacent the knife and projecting toward the knife to contact the surface of fruit on the spindle and limit the depth of peeling cut of the knife.

3. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 2 wherein, there is a stop in the path of movement of the knife suspension link to limit the movement of the link and the knife toward the spindle.

4. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 3 wherein, there is a fixed cam, and means carried by the frame to contact the cam and move the stop to draw the suspension link and knife away from the spindle as the knife approaches its downward limit of arcuate travel.

5. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 3 wherein,

there is a lever arm pivotally connected to t e frame and carrying the stop, means mounted on t e rame to limit the movement of the lever arm toward the spindle, and means resiliently urging the lever arm toward its limit means.

6. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 5 wherein, there is a fixed cam, and a cam follower attached to the lever arm to contact the cam and retract the lever arm, suspension link and knife as the knife approaches its downward limit of arcuate travel.

7. Knife assembly for peeling fruit mounted upon a rotatable spindle comprising, a U-shaped frame about the spindle and mounted for pivotal movement about an axis normal to the axis of rotation of the spindle, a shaft mounted in the frame and extending generally parallel to the frame bridge member, a rotary knife on the shaft adjacent the spindle position, a universal joint in the shaft adjacent the mounting of the shaft in the frame, means mounted on the frame to drive the shaft, a suspension link pivotally connected to the frame and connected to the shaft adjacent the knife to limit knife movement to an arc in a plane radial to the spindle axis, and means to resiliently urge the knife toward the spindle.

8. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 7 wherein, there is a stop carried by the frame to limit the movement of the knife toward the spindle.

9. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 8 wherein, there is a bushing on the shaft adjacent the knife and the suspension link is connected to the bushing, and a guard secured to the bushing and projecting toward the knife to contact the surface of fruit on the spindle and limit the depth of peeling cut of the knife.

10. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 9 wherein, there is means to retract the knife against the urging of the resilient means. 

1. Knife assembly for peeling fruit mounted upon a rotatable spindle comprising, a frame, a knife mounted for rotation about an axIs normal to the rotary axis of the spindle, a shaft upon which the knife is mounted, the shaft being carried by the frame and having a flexible joint between the frame and knife, a suspension link pivoted to the frame and connected to the shaft adjacent the knife to support the knife for arcuate movement relative to the frame in a plane radial to the spindle rotary axis, resilient means carried by frame and contacting the suspension link to yieldingly urge the knife toward fruit on the spindle, means to drive the shaft, and means pivotally mounting the frame for movement about an axis normal to the rotary axis of the spindle to move the knife in an arc longitudinally of the spindle to traverse fruit mounted upon the spindle.
 2. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein, there is a guard mounted on the shaft adjacent the knife and projecting toward the knife to contact the surface of fruit on the spindle and limit the depth of peeling cut of the knife.
 3. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 2 wherein, there is a stop in the path of movement of the knife suspension link to limit the movement of the link and the knife toward the spindle.
 4. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 3 wherein, there is a fixed cam, and means carried by the frame to contact the cam and move the stop to draw the suspension link and knife away from the spindle as the knife approaches its downward limit of arcuate travel.
 5. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 3 wherein, there is a lever arm pivotally connected to the frame and carrying the stop, means mounted on the frame to limit the movement of the lever arm toward the spindle, and means resiliently urging the lever arm toward its limit means.
 6. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 5 wherein, there is a fixed cam, and a cam follower attached to the lever arm to contact the cam and retract the lever arm, suspension link and knife as the knife approaches its downward limit of arcuate travel.
 7. Knife assembly for peeling fruit mounted upon a rotatable spindle comprising, a U-shaped frame about the spindle and mounted for pivotal movement about an axis normal to the axis of rotation of the spindle, a shaft mounted in the frame and extending generally parallel to the frame bridge member, a rotary knife on the shaft adjacent the spindle position, a universal joint in the shaft adjacent the mounting of the shaft in the frame, means mounted on the frame to drive the shaft, a suspension link pivotally connected to the frame and connected to the shaft adjacent the knife to limit knife movement to an arc in a plane radial to the spindle axis, and means to resiliently urge the knife toward the spindle.
 8. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 7 wherein, there is a stop carried by the frame to limit the movement of the knife toward the spindle.
 9. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 8 wherein, there is a bushing on the shaft adjacent the knife and the suspension link is connected to the bushing, and a guard secured to the bushing and projecting toward the knife to contact the surface of fruit on the spindle and limit the depth of peeling cut of the knife.
 10. Knife assembly as claimed in claim 9 wherein, there is means to retract the knife against the urging of the resilient means. 